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“ | Money is such a beautiful word. | „ |
~ Pristine Figg singing her opinion about money in the song "(Money Is Such) A Beautiful Word". |
“ | Daddy is dead! | „ |
~ Pristine Figg sinisterly lying to Robyn that her father is "dead" upon catching up to her in the cabin, unaware that he is already on his way on a helicopter to rescue her. |
Pristine Jacqueline Figg, also known as Aunt Figg or Aunt Pristine Figg, is the main antagonist of the 1992 animated film Tom and Jerry: The Movie, which is also the first feature film in the Tom and Jerry franchise.
She is Tom and Jerry's arch-nemesis and the villainous former guardian of Robyn Starling who may or may not be related to her, and took control of the Starling household, holding her hostage after the suspected death of Mr. Starling. She is also Lickboot's employer and Ferdinand's owner.
She was voiced by the late Charlotte Rae.
Biography[]
When Tom and Jerry first meet Robyn Starling under a bridge, Robyn describes Aunt Figg as a cruel, money-hungry, child-hating, and insensitive woman who had usurped the Starling household and held her prisoner since the death of her mother and the disappearance of her entrepreneur father, exploiting her as a means of maintaining the family's fortunes. She had also grabbed Robyn's locket and threw it out of the window, but Robyn eventually finds it, then runs away as fast as possible. Unaware of Figg's dark nature, Tom and Jerry explain that Figg may be worried about Robyn and may not be as bad as she seems, and that at least Robyn has a home with her.
Figg is first seen fake crying, begging a police officer to find Robyn. The officer comforts her and explains to her that he will find her. Once the officer leaves however, she reveals her true nature, which is just as Robyn had described. Despite her lawyer and enforcer Lickboot's concerns that without Robyn, she would lose all her fortunes, Figg abruptly silences him twice, not wanting to hear any more from him.
Figg also blames her obese dachshund Ferdinand for letting Robyn escape the house, but Ferdinand tells her he was distracted eating; Figg gives him a cupcake afterwards. After singing a song together titled "Money is Such a Beautiful Word" which describes how nothing in the world is more important than money, Figg and Lickboot are about to kiss, but are interrupted by the doorbell ringing. It is the officer from earlier, having found Robyn under the bridge with Tom and Jerry.
As the officer explains the girl's location to her, Figg initially growls, but later calms herself down. She (reluctantly) allows Tom and Jerry to stay. Figg orders Ferdinand to bring Tom and Jerry to the kitchen for dinner and harshly sends Robyn to bed without any food as punishment for running away. After Tom and Jerry (and Ferdinand) wreck the kitchen (due to Ferdinand giving Tom dog food and throwing it back to him), she blames the duo for the incident and threatens to send them to Dr. Applecheek. Figg later receives a telegram from Lickboot confirming that Robyn's father is still alive, and intends not to inform Robyn and make sure to lock her in her own room, tossing the paper aside.
Jerry, who has been eavesdropping from a bookshelf, picks up the telegram and reveals it to Tom, who had just left Robyn's room, to tell him that Mr. Starling is alive. But they are caught by Figg, who snatches the paper from them and decides to bring them to Dr. Applecheek. She grabs Tom by his tail attempting to flee, while Jerry is caught by Ferdinand, having recovered from the beating earlier by Tom and Jerry.
Figg then arrives at Dr. Applecheek's house and they introduce themselves to each other. Figg brings Tom and Jerry to him and Dr. Applecheek "promising" that they will be good pets, as an attempt to imprison them. As she returns home, Robyn asks of Tom and Jerry's whereabouts, and she fibs that they left. Robyn interrogates her if she sent them away without her farewell, but Figg promptly berates her and lies about Applecheek's shelter. She sadistically sends a letter to Dr. Applecheek ordering him to put down Tom and Jerry, but they eventually escape with help from Puggsy and Frankie the Flea (whom they met earlier before dealing a group of mean alley cats right before meeting Robyn), alongside the rest of Applecheek's captive animals (among them Droopy).
As Figg is asleep, Tom and Jerry return to inform Robyn the news that her father is alive. As they escape, Tom and Jerry accidentally wake up Figg. Figg discovers that Robyn had escaped once again. Later on, she calls Lickboot to inform him that Robyn had run away again. They return to the bridge and find a raft nearby. Figg and Lickboot arrive, and she explains that this the bridge where the officer found Robyn from the previous night, along with her friends, Tom and Jerry.
As Lickboot comments, Figg berates him once again. She begins to call for Robyn as the latter, Tom, and Jerry board on the raft and row away, and Ferdinand spots them informing her that Robyn is on the raft, but she doesn't seem to notice. Ferdinand, once again, tries to inform his owner, Figg that Robyn is on the raft. Because of this, Figg reprimands Ferdinand, pushing him and his skateboard aside, sending him right into a river, causing him to almost drown. They continue searching for Robyn beneath the bridge, but eventually give up and return home.
The next day, Figg is then contacted by Lickboot on the phone. Lickboot states without her proof, they can't catch Starling's fortunes. She requests for ideas, and Lickboot suggests a fake reward should be easy to bring Robyn back. Figg, eating an éclair, tells Lickboot she "loves it when he talks like that". They both sneak into a milk factory and print Robyn on every milk carton, planting a bogus $1,000,000 bounty reward on her, determined to double-cross anyone who finds her by reneging the reward money. They toast their milk cartons, believing this will earn Robyn back.
Dr. Applecheek arrives at her home blaming Figg for the incident, causing her to ask him what he means it's her fault, and if he had exterminated Tom and Jerry as commanded, Robyn wouldn't escape for the second time. Dr. Applecheek says not to mention the damage they caused. Before Figg can chastise him any further, her phone rings. She then realizes that Robyn is in Captain Kiddie & Squawk's carnival after she, Tom and Jerry are separated when their raft crashed into a ship. Figg then returns to continue her argument with Dr. Applecheek, but he had already left having overheard of the bounty and decides to take the blame of the incident that Dr. Applecheek informed her of. Lickboot arrives telling him that Robyn is in Captain Kiddie's carnival and Ferdinand joins them.
They arrive at the carnival asking Kiddie (who was about to confront Tom and Jerry) where Robyn is, and inquire about the reward. Figg replies only if she sees Robyn, and Kiddie replies that Robyn is on his Ferris wheel, unaware that the bounty is a bogus. The Straycatchers, who are Dr. Applecheek's henchmen, also aware of the bounty, spot her on the Ferris wheel. But they ended trapped on it themselves by Tom and Jerry. Figg tries to catch Robyn, but and she, Tom, and Jerry escape on a paddle steamer, Figg, Lickboot, and Ferdinand give chase, but they lose them and find themselves into an intersection road.
Lickboot soon figures out where Robyn, Tom, and Jerry are heading: Robyn's Nest, a small cabin where the Starlings stay every summer. Suspecting Robyn is now aware of her father's status and will hide there to wait for him, Figg, Lickboot, and Ferdinand infiltrate the cabin and arrange a trap for Robyn once she arrives.
Robyn, Tom and Jerry arrive at the cabin, unaware of the ambush. When Robyn enters alone searching for her father, Figg appears out of nowhere, once again lying that he is dead (unaware he is already on his way on his helicopter, having been notified by Starling Enterprises (a U.S. military base) of his daughter's whereabouts and Figg's intentions and crimes). Lickboot also appears behind the door, locking it to prevent Robyn from escaping back to the boat, as well as Tom and Jerry from interfering and also locking out Ferdinand to hold them off.
Robyn attempts to stand up to her tormentors, but when she furiously kicks Lickboot in self-defense as he tries to drag her back home, a kerosene lamp is accidentally knocked over, setting the entire cabin aflame in the process. As Figg angrily admonishes Lickboot for setting the cabin on fire, she orders him to grab Robyn and evacuate. As the cabin burns down, Lickboot, showing mild concern for Robyn, attempts to escort her to safety from the flames, but Robyn still refuses, unwilling to be raised and treated like a slave any longer. Figg panics and tells Lickboot that they must immediately leave, and abandon Robyn by leaving her to her fiery death (most likely to prevent her from reuniting with her father in order to keep her crimes covered from the police and military), insisting they must only save themselves.
While Tom and Jerry arrive on the rooftop to rescue Robyn, Figg and Lickboot fight over the key set, which breaks off and they search for the right key. As Figg finally finds the key, She, along with Lickboot and Ferdinand, are defeated by accidentally knocking the door down, causing Ferdinand to sprung off his skateboard and onto Lickboot's head. Lickboot steps on the middle of Ferdinand's skateboard, causing himself, along with Figg and Ferdinand to roll down the stairway and fly into the boat, which sails the villainous trio away towards an unknown fate after Ferdinand accidentally turns on the motors and Figg and Lickboot both gets stuck in the crow's nest and unable to steer it.
Tom and Jerry manage to enter the cabin and bring Robyn to the safety of roof, where her father finally arrives to rescue them. He succeeds in saving Robyn, but not Tom and Jerry before the cabin collapses, leaving only half of the stairway and the dock left, but the duo fortunately survive. Starling apologizes to his daughter and promises never to leave her again.
It is uncertain what happened to Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand after going overdrive on the ship, but in the novelizations for the film, say they were eventually found and arrested for their crimes against Robyn, alongside Tom & Jerry and the destruction of Robyn's Nest. As for Ferdinand, he is likely sent to a dog pound for his crimes as well.
Appearance[]
Aunt Figg is an obese woman with orange hair and white streaks, green eyes and fair skin. She wears a purple cardigan, a pink shirt, pink round earrings, a purple skirt, a pink bracelet around her wrist, a lavender pantyhose and high-heel shoes. While Figg was delivering Tom and Jerry to Dr. Applecheek to have them imprisoned then killed, she wears a purple sun hat. At bedtime, she wears a lavender nightgown, a pink bathrobe, and purple slippers. While making a $1,000,000 reward for Robyn's return, she wears a purple jacket with black trims on her sleeves, a pink turtleneck shirt, indigo pants, and black high-heel boots.
Trivia[]
- Aunt Figg's oppressive, child-abusive personality was likely inspired by those of the corrupt parents or guardians of various characters in Roald Dahl books.
- Despite voicing the main antagonist of the film, Charlotte Rae had bottom billing below every other actor according to the end credits, even below the additional voice actors such as B.J. Ward and Don Messick.
- Aunt Figg's full name is Pristine Jacqueline Figg.
- Aunt Figg was the only animated villain to be voiced by Charlotte Rae, before her death on August 5, 2018.
- Because of her malevolent, hyper-aggressive, paedophobic, and sadistic personality, Aunt Figg is also abusive even to her own minions by telling Lickboot to shut up and called him three insults and even blaming him for accidentally setting Mr. Starling's summer cabin on fire, telling Ferdinand to shut up and pushing him away to the river to have him drown and arguing with Dr. Applecheek about Tom and Jerry's escape and telling him that he's too late to kidnap Robyn, telling the Straycatchers that they're too late to catch Robyn and pushing Captain Kiddie and Squawk away from her so she can kidnap Robyn Starling for her own financial gain. In addition, the $1,000,000 bounty she implanted on Robyn was fake, since she had no intent on paying the reward and it was entirely an excuse to get her back.
- Aunt Figg greatly shares similarities (in appearance, personality, and character) with some of the most evil Disney villainesses namely Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians, Madame Medusa from The Rescuers, and especially Ursula from The Little Mermaid.
- Ironically, this was one of the main criticisms Tom and Jerry: The Movie received.
- Aunt Figg also serves as the dark counterpart to Robyn, as the latter serves as the rightful heiress to the Starling fortunes, while the former serves as the illegitimate heiress.
External Links[]
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